John Lewis on the ingredients of a successful multichannel retail strategy

As less forward-thinking retailers have gone under in the past couple of weeks, John Lewis has been a high street success story, thanks in no small part to its multichannel approach.

The retailer achieved a 44% increase in online sales over Christmas, so what lessons are there for other retailers?

I’ve been asking John Lewis’ Head of Online Delivery and Customer Experience Sean O’Connor about the secrets behind its success…

How important was the TV campaign in driving online sales in the run up to Christmas? Can you track/attribute this, and if so, how?

Our 2012 Christmas TV advert was more multichannel than ever before. Although the advert being on TV was the driving force for the ad reaching our customers, activity on social media platforms was essential in creating a buzz around the launch date.

The advert launched on YouTube (which so far has had over 3m hits) on 9th November 2012 and we announced this to our 35,000 followers on Twitter at 9am.

We had 486 retweets of our proactive tweet announcing the launch and ‘John Lewis’ was trending in the UK. Statistics from YouGov also revealed that we had reached “26% of the UK Twittersphere with our Christmas advert”.

The volume of positive feedback we received via social media showed that customer appetite to shop with us at Christmas was there, reflected in a spike in traffic to johnlewis.com after the ad launched on social media.

For the online clearance sale that commenced on Christmas Eve, what tactic surprised you most with its effectiveness in driving your busiest ever day of online sales?

We’ve been launching Clearance online twice a year for over a decade, so have had lots of experience in terms of what works well in order to ensure a successful sales period. In particular, our emails to customers play an important role and played an increased part in our marketing strategy over this period.

How big a factor was mobile in driving sales in 2012?

Mobile and tablet shopping continues to exhibit triple digit growth, both in terms of traffic and revenue.

It is difficult to track the influence that mobile has over offline sales, but I believe this is playing both a broad and significant role in how customers are choosing to shop.

In a recent article looking at the factors behind John Lewis’ excellent online performance, we focused on factors such as effective PPC and a great web user experience. How important are these within the mix?

Providing a great web customer experience is a fundamental component of our overall strategy to provide a great omnichannel customer experience.

We try and put our customers into the heart of whatever we develop online, not just through website design and usability, but also in shaping our assortment strategy, our fulfilment proposition and more.

How do you combat the threat of ‘showrooming’ in your stores? Do you see this as a challenge or an opportunity?

Showrooming is an opportunity. We encourage customers to test our price commitment and adding wi-fi to our shops makes it easy for them to do so.

When we supplement that commitment with good advice, service, trustworthiness and the instant gratification of making a purchase there and then, we believe we have a winning recipe.

From our own research and research carried out by independent organisations we know that customers will use both johnlewis.com and our shops to both browse and buy.

They will browse online and buy in a shop and vice versa. In some cases they will be in a shop and buy online via their mobile phone. Customers are no longer concerned about the channel they use they want to shop at John Lewis when and how they choose.

Our role is to ensure we are set up to meet that demand and that’s why we have set ourselves out as an omnichannel business

You have introduced wi-fi in stores for customers. How has this worked out?

It has proved very popular with our customers. We have seen really good usage and from the feedback we have received it is helping the customer journey as they access our mobile site.

The dwell time for customers has increased within our catering facilities whilst customers use our free wi-fi.

We have also instigated a trial in our Exeter branch where we have a number of iPads accessible to customers who can browse the internet free of charge.

Thanks to collect in store services and next day delivery options, are you finding that customers were making purchases closer to Christmas Day than in previous years?

Click and collect played an even stronger role in 2012 than in 2011, and this Christmas we were able to extend offering the service into our shops up to December 23 at 7pm, with delivery into the shops on Christmas Eve.

We saw a 70% increase on last year for this late service.

How do you attribute online sales driven by stores?

Shops are not credited with online sales, however shops and online sales are all part of our total catchment sales. This enables the shop team to see how they in their shops contribute to the overall catchment result.

It has helped us break down any barriers for Partners. For us it is not whether a customer shops online or within a shop, it is all about customers shopping with John Lewis.

Post navigation

DISCLAIMER

The information contained in this Blog (the "Blog") is intended solely to provide general guidance on matters of interest for the personal use of the reader, who accepts full responsibility for its use. The application and impact of laws can vary widely based on the specific facts involved. Given the changing nature of laws, rules and regulations, and the inherent hazards of electronic communication, there may be delays, omissions or inaccuracies in information contained in this Blog. Accordingly, the information on this Blog is provided with the understanding that the authors and publishers are not herein engaged in rendering professional advice or services. As such, it should not be used as a substitute for consultation with professional and competent advisers. Before making any decision or taking any action, you should consult a professional adviser.

While we have made every attempt to ensure that the information contained in this Blog has been obtained from reliable sources, CV Retail Limited is not responsible for any errors or omissions, or for the results obtained from the use of this information. All information in this Blog is provided "as is", with no guarantee of completeness, accuracy, timeliness or of the results obtained from the use of this information, and without warranty of any kind, express or implied, including, but not limited to warranties of performance, merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. Nothing herein shall to any extent substitute for the independent investigations and the sound technical and business judgment of the reader. In no event will CV Retail Limited, or its directors, employees or agents, be liable to you or anyone else for any decision made or action taken in reliance on the information in this Blog or for any consequential, special or similar damages, even if advised of the possibility of such damages.

Links to Related Internet Sites
Certain links in this Blog connect to third party web sites.CV Retail Limited does not accept any responsibility for, nor makes any representations as to the accuracy of, any content in such third party web sites.

Third Party Comments
Third parties may submit comments for publication on the Blog. Any such comments are submitted on the basis that CV Retail Limited will review and may edit such comments, and that not all submissions will be published. Any third party comments published on the Blog (whether edited or not) are third party information for which CV Retail Limited takes no responsibility and disclaims all liability, and the above disclaimer applies to any such third party comments.

Privacy Statement
If and to the extent that you submit any personal data (such as your name and email address) to CV Retail Limited through this Blog, including by email to the Blog manager, CV Retail Limited (as data controller) confirms that it will only use any such personal data for the purposes for which you have provided such data.

Copyright
The copyright in the text, podcasts, PowerPoint slides, layout and any other materials on this Blog (other than any third party comments) is owned by CV Retail Limited. All rights are reserved.
If you wish to use or copy any of the text or other materials on this Blog (or any extracts from the same), you must first contact CV Retail Limited for copyright permission in relation to the proposed use. In addition, any use of text or other materials on this Blog (or any extracts from the same) in published materials must identify the CV Retail Limited materials involved and reference the CV Retail Limited author's name.

We are a firm of Accountants based in Harrow, Middlesex offering tips and tax advice to help sole traders, individuals and businesses in the UK grow. We'll also keep you up-to-date with the latest tax news hitting the headlines! We hope you find our blog helpful and appreciate any feedback.